Amazon accessory to scamming
March 11, 2024
Really?
Does Amazon scam its customers? No. Do they facilitate scammers to set up an operation? Yes. Therefore, they are accessory to scamming.
Is this a problem for them? No, after a long chat with customer support, they decline any (even remote) responsibility, and that's exactly my problem with them.
What happened...
Let me tell you my story. I've been scammed by a person with a Hungarian bank account. What happened? I wanted to buy a bike rack for the towing bar of my car. I paid the amount through amazon. A day later I received a message through the messaging service run by Amazon telling me that the payment was interrupted and they asked me to make a bank transfer to settle the open amount. Should I have been warned by the fact that the bank account was Hungarian? Yes. Did the PDF that came by the messaging service look authentic being from Amazon? Yes: it contained their logo and was authored by a G.M. (I can confirm the full name, but I don't list him here, as I am a polite citizen) listing its affiliation with Amazon.de. I stupidly paid the amount and sent (as requested) a message confirming that I did so. Half an hour later, the order was canceled listing as reason that the item was no longer available and the store magically disappeared from the Amazon website. Moreover: no refund, as no payment was made through the Amazon market place. I tried to claim a refund through the messaging thread I had running with the store. The message was never replied to, and a day later my refund message magically disappeared from the messaging system!
Customer support
My interaction with customer support through their chat function was painful. I had to explain my case three times to an amazon chat employee (as two of them ended the session without asking, after I told my story). The third reopened the messaging thread with the seller and asked the seller to inform me about the purchase. He also asked me to wait for 72 hours, which I did. I'm just off my next chat with customer support. Conclusion? They don't see how they could be held responsible for the event. It's like Pontius Pilatus sending Jesus to crucifiction and claiming he has nothing to do with it.
Who's responsible?
Is Amazon responsible for this scamming operation? Directly? no. But indirectly? Yes. They do allow scammers to set up a store on their market place, they facilitate these scammers to send messages through the Amazon messaging system, giving them credibility. And what's worse: there's nothing they do against it. They claim to investigate it internally. Bull shit. The third of the first three customer support guys told me he would open an internal file and when I contacted them 72h later, I had to repeat my entire story again. They don't keep files. Or no, they do: it's called /dev/null.
My next step is a visit to the police. Hopefully interpol is willing to follow up on it.
Wrap up
@Jeff Bezos: you should be ashamed of yourself. I have no doubt you worked hard to get your business where it is right now. However, you may benefit from the proceedings of it, but you should also take responsibility for its side effects.
Can anybody help?
Is there any law firm out there interested in starting a class action suit against Amazon related to their scam-support? I guess I'll have to wait until one of such a firm's partners gets scammed on Amazon as well... any scammer interested in setting up a toga-selling scam through Amazon?
Post scriptum
Addendum: a few days later I ordered the same bikerack from a different store on amazon.de, and I again got a request to pay outside of the Amazon payment system. I reported it again and got the same message: we will start an internal inquiry. Not! Believe me: Amazon is infested with scammers and worse: they don't do a thing about it. Where's karma when you need it?